East of Eden: Watering and growing customer loyalty

Wednesday 26 October 2016

Metro, a Berlin supermarket is striving to make urban farming mainstream with a high-tech vertical garden. A pilot project in collaboration with farming startup Infarm, the Kräutergarten (‘herb garden’) uses hydroponic principles to grow plants. The plants are stacked vertically and housed in a protected environment. The Infarm app allows monitoring the farm technology, measuring factors like pH level. Twice a week, the Infarm team harvests the herbs from the garden and puts them on display for customers to buy.

Founded in 2013 by Osnat Michael and brothers Guy and Erez Galonska, Infarm has big plans: CEO Erez says the company hopes to one day power vertical farms in offices, restaurants, hotels, supermarkets, and even individual homes. “We envision a future in which cities become self-sufficient in their food production”. Infarm has already designed indoor farms for clients like Airbnb, Olympus, and Mercedes Benz.

‽Infarm not only aims to become a game-changer in global-food production, it also embarks customers on a new adventure. This display creates awareness and the experience – by stimulating the senses – creates implication on the customer’s part. Thus engrossed in the story he is told, he is more likely to become loyal.